


always and together

by asmileyoucouldbottle



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff, Hijacked Peeta Mellark, Nightmares, Post-Canon, but working through it yk, everlark, post-epilogue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:42:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25453330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asmileyoucouldbottle/pseuds/asmileyoucouldbottle
Summary: One night, Katniss hears Peeta upset from night terrors, and goes to him. There, she makes a vow to herself and him to stop pushing him away and stand by him. Takes place month after Peeta and Katniss move back to District 12.
Relationships: Katniss Everdeen/Peeta Mellark
Comments: 2
Kudos: 52





	always and together

A scream starts me awake, but for once it isn’t my own. I throw back the covers, chilled to the bone. Although I know that there is nothing hurting Peeta besides his own mind, I can’t shake off the urge to grab my bow and fight for him. But the mind is an elusive thing, one that can’t be battled with typical weapons. Instead, I take off through the night to Peeta’s house.

His house is right next door, and I manage to make it there without injury, even in the dead of night. As I run down his halls, all I can think is that this is the first time he’s yelled out loud, and the first time I’m on my way to comfort him, rather than the other way around.

I push open the door in haste, and Peeta turns to me, eyes wild in the slight light of the moon. I cautiously come to his bed, and sit beside him. At the sight of me, his face momentarily fills with relief, before his eyes begin to dilate. The sight makes me nervous, and I’m all too familiar with the hate that those eyes have given me before.

I grasp his hand and stand my ground. He squeezes his eyes and my hand impossibly tight as he tries to force the rising mutt in him away. When he looks back at me, his eyes are normal and his hand goes limp.

Peeta doesn't resist as I coax him back to lying down, and when I wrap my arms around him, he relaxes into my embrace. His own arms come to shelter me, and I can hear his heart beating erratically. I raise one hand and press my palm to it.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I whisper, repeating the words he’d asked me countless times before the Quarter Quell. I realize that this is not only the first time I’ve come to Peeta, but the first time either of us have looked to each other for comfort from night terrors in the month since the war.

Peeta stiffens slightly. Almost too quietly to hear, he says, “Snow.”

My heart clenches as recounts of his and the other tributes time in the Capitol fill my mind. I hold him closer.

“Snow is dead, and we’re safe.” They are words I constantly have to tell myself when I awake from a similar dream, and I give them to him. I know better than to say or think, “we’re okay.” 

“Safe from what, Katniss.” Peeta responds, voice strained.  
“Everytime I sleep, a new horror awaits me, as vivid as if I’m living it again. Is that safe?” His voice has taken on a slightly hysterical edge, and I begin to repeatedly brush his hair off his forehead, a gesture I know to soothe both of us.

I hesitate. “Well, we’re safe from him in waking at least. He can’t do any more harm than he’s already done. And now we’re together, to protect each other.”

“We’re together.” He echoes. I think of how all the worst things happen when we’re separated, like when I let him out of my sight at the arena, or when he was tortured by the Capitol, and all the nightmares I’ve been braving alone.

“And we’re going to stay that way. Always.” I decide. 

I’m transported to another time and place, another “always.” This time, I’m making my vow to stand by him, like the promise he made for me all those ages ago.

Peeta, content with this idea, nods and closes his eyes.

Before he drifts off to sleep, Peeta repeats me. “Always.” He murmurs. 

Always. Our vow to stand next to one another, through it all.

Ready to fall asleep myself, I allow myself to not only comfort but be comforted. A sensation of safety comes over me, one that I haven’t felt in a long time.

“Because that’s what we do.” I hear myself saying. “We protect each other.”

No matter what the Capitol did to him, the boy before me is still my Peeta. He always has been, I was just too scared to see through and face his pain. But from here, nothing will get between us, and I’ll be here for him like he always has been for me. It will take time, but I know that healing will come. And we can work through this, the hijacked memories, trauma, and whatever feelings there are between us.

Together.


End file.
